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Internet dependency

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If you’re like me, you’ve asked yourself many times how we functioned before the Internet. It’s true that some things were better before we became tethered to the online world. Nevertheless, most of our jobs are constructed in a way that now requires digital contact at all times.

I was reminded of this Wednesday morning when KPCC’s Internet connection was lost just minutes before “AirTalk” began. Not only did we lose our ability to gather important last-minute information on our guests and topics, but we also lost the ability to create our daily “AirTalk” page that features each of our segments. Without the updated page, we had no ability to take listener comments or questions, apart from phone calls.

Though our online component for listeners started just a couple of years ago, I felt as though I’d lost an important way of connecting with listeners. It is funny how quickly we not only adapt to a new normal, but how that loss hits us.

Fortunately, our Internet connection resumed after about fifteen minutes. All was back to normal and we were able to take online listener comments. However, it forced us to consider what we would do with a longer outage. Now that we’re so Internet dependent, it would be significant challenge.